An Honest mistake
by YuukoAzmasaki
Summary: "I know you're all excited to have me back." words seem to have failed her because his presence surprised her. Throw in a tsundere Sasuke, constant schools trips and teenagers enjoying their life in school, you might just see why Sakura is excited to be in Konoha high.
1. New dorm, Old love

An Honest Mistake

Chapter 1 : Old Love, New dorm

**Sorry everyone, I rewrote this because I found that I wanted the story to go another way and some alterations had to be made from this chapter. But anyway, chapter 2 is on it's way and I'm sorry if this chapter is not to your liking. Anyway, please favorite and review! **

-o-

_"Where do you want to go next?"_

_He asked, leaning back into the plushiness of the cushiony seat with the ice cream cup was steadily poised in his elegant fingers. He was looking, watching her with those coal eyes people would call cold and indifferent but she begged to differ; Those eyes were the doors to the inner workings of his emotions, every little thing he felt always shone through his eyes although they were expressed rather minisculely that everyone would think he was an ice cube._

_Heck, even she was scared the first time meeting him because he didn't say anything to her and he just stared down at her looking rather disinterested (and pissed?) because of their wide height difference. It didn't help that the first time they met that she threw a tray of food at him which were supposed to be for her pig of a friend and he just happened to be in the way._

_She smiled sheepishly, realizing that she didn't answer him because of that memory. But really, she didn't know where to go and she didn't want this meeting to end so soon, not when this is the first time they hung out in 5 months. It wasn't their fault really, his busy student life and her strict dorm rules were the cause for their rare meets and she hated it._

_"I don't know really. We can go anywhere you want to. I-I mean, I just want to go somewhere with you!" She stuttered out._

_Even though he his other hand covered his lips, she could see that he was smiling at her answer through the spaces of his fingers. He ran that hand through his hair and leaned forward, making his smile more visible to her and her heart beat even faster. When he smiled, his lips would stretch upwards and form a heart shape with his pearly whites peeking through. When he smiled, that was when he was either the cutest or most smoldering._

_But it was the way his fingers placed the ice cream cup on the table and gracefully make their way to her own smaller fingers, slowly entwining together and tightly, showing her that he didn't want this to end just as much as she did, that he too was in love with her just as much as she was in love with him._

_If his smile made her heart flutter, then this touch of skin coupled tempered with a quiet affection made her breathless._

_The both of them stayed quiet for a time, trying to think of what to do. The ice cream steadily melted as they took their time until he took out his car keys from his pocket and stood up, walking and tugging her hand for her to follow suit. She followed, but she was confused by his sudden change of momentum._

_"Where are we going?"_

_"Taking you out for a drive," he said coolly, seeing his car in the distance. She laughed lightheartedly, curious and excited to see the places he would bring her to. After all, he was an unconventional type of lover._

_-o-_

She smiled fondly at the memory, she loved those days where he would take those weekends off to drive her around to places she's never been and sometimes, they would venture to places he's never been too. They would always meet at the ice cream parlor or the dango shop beside it first and then drive around the nearby area where they would eat the dango they bought or the onigiri he made (which was the best) in the car while talking or just silently watch the sunset before he drove her to her school and back to his life.

It was fun, and those days were really the best days of her life. If only the days were more like that.

Finally reaching her opening her front door and entering her living room, she screamed and spun around in joy, finally free from school, unbearable people and homework! She flung herself to the couch face first, reaching for the remote and flipping through the channels as she sighed and nuzzled in the warmth of her couch. This comfort is something she missed and she was going to enjoy it to the max by sitting on it while watching netflix for all of her summer break.

"Isis, come here girl!" And so the dog did, running through the living room and barking at her, happy that her master was finally home. But Sakura noticed that Isis dropped anletter so she picked up both the letter and Isis before settling down on the couch. She noticed that her name was handwritten in capital letters on the front of the envelope and it smelled like vanilla, like rich people.

Was her grandpa finally giving her money?!

She grabbed the knife, quickly dragging it through the top for easy access, taking it out and finally reading the contents of it. She scanned the letter twice before letting out a loud scream, jumping here and there and swinging her dog around. Screw getting money, a chance to a better education was far better and that better education was at a place where she dreamed, prayed and sent many appeal letters begging to get in.

She got her phone, making a brief prayer to thank God for this opportunity and called her mom while she cuddled with Isis as she waited for her mom to answer. When her mom finally did, holy shit her heart burst from giddiness and if she didn't tell her mom now, she would explode!

"Mom, mom, mom you wouldn't believe what happened!"

"You managed to convince grandpa to give up all his money?"

"No, that would be the end of the world if he did but I have something even better, I've been accepted into Konoha High!"

.

.

.

"Mom?"

_Slam!_

"Where is it?"

-o-

"Welcome to Konoha High, Sakura-san. I apologize for the late arrival of your acceptance letter, especially when the land of Snow is having quite a blizzard, huh?"

She just stared at old man passively through the bundles of scarves and coats she wore, specks of snow could be seen visibly on the clothes she had wrapped snuggly on her frame to keep warm. Not only did she receive the letter late, she had to come for the registration the next day (which was today) when she hadn't prepared anything for the trip or her stay in the dorms and the blizzard this time, it was a bitch.

Thankfully, it cleared in time for her to leave in the early morning but the coldness still bit her skin and made her shiver nonstop throughout the whole journey. She left around 4 am in the morning and arrived at the High school around 4 pm with chapped lips, an insane thirst for a coke and her stomach grumbled for food, hot, warm delicious food. But even in her caveman hunger, she still had the decency to blush which amused the old man.

"Here," he handed her a cream puff which she took and started eating it immediately, sighing in bliss at the warm, delicious cream of the pastry. She thanked him softly and he begun the exclusive tour of the campus around the lush gardens first. She saw a number of students jogging around the vast, empty expanse of green to which he told her that this field was usually used for outdoor festivals.

Then he showed her around the buildings, which there were three buildings; the administrative, the dormitory and the actual school in itself. He started with administrative first and introduced her to the teachers that would teach her in her upcoming classes.

"And this is Hatake Kakashi. He will be your homeroom teacher for this semester in which he will be responsible for you starting now."

And so the old man left, leaving her gape at his back unbelievingly as the silver haired man closed the orange book he was reading and stood up with his hands in his pocket, as if he was used to the principle leaving students to him. He rubbed his neck sheepishly and she noticed he was tall, VERY tall. Like the crown of her head barely touched his shoulders.

"So, you're Haruno right? I'm Kakashi, dont need to call me Hatake-sensei, Kakashi-sensei will do fine and let me guess, he hasn't shown you the other facilities in this building?" He asked, she nodded and briefly wondered how his voice didn't get muffled through the white mask he wore or whether he was used to the principal leaving students to him. Like the principal, he started giving her an exclusive tour of the campus, saying hello to the occasional people who greeted him while she was struggling to keep up with him.

Damn tall people and their long legs.

"So, where were previously from?" He asked, slowing down slightly so that she could match his pace.

"I was previously from an all girls boarding school from the land of Snow and I've been appealing for about 3 years to enroll here until yesterday, I got the letter of acceptance and rushed here despite the blizzard."

"How was everything there? Did you feel sad leaving everything behind?" He asked, ushering her to the left.

"Everything was okay there and it was a nice school. I was kinda the mega nerd there, like my grades were always the highest in my form and everyone came to me if they didn't understand anything. As for how I felt, I kinda felt more excited than sad because the last school was my second choice in the list of boarding schools that I applied for when I was 13. So, everything's good."

He stopped in front of a grand-looking mahogany door, pushing it to reveal a library that was way more amazing beyond her wildest dreams. The library was a spacious two-floored complex where both floors were occupied with tall shelves filled with books of all types of genres and the warm colored lights gave the library a kind of nostalgic and peaceful ambience to its surroundings.

She walked inside the magnificent looking library, admiring the wonderful splendor of it. Even her old library wasn't as big as this. Oh she would come here every day after school to study.

"I take it your old school wasn't as large as this?"

"The library at the old school is like a plankton compared to this giant whale of a library," She said, admiring the wonderful splendor of this magnificent library. Oh she would come here every day after to school to study, weather be damned. He smiled at her reply and tapped her on the shoulder so that he could show her the gym next, snapping her out of her daydream and leaving her to scramble after him.

The gym however was quite normal-looking but one look into the inventory room proved otherwise. There was a multitude of gym equipment in there for many types of sports - gymnastics, boxing, netball, you name it- and they all looked new, result of a well maintenance by an overly enthusiastic bowl haired teacher who wears a tight fitting green spandex every day, Kakashi noted casually.

The swimming pool was beside the gym which was the type of swimming pools usually seen in Olympic stadiums. This area didn't surprise her, she didn't like swimming much, not after she almost drowned in the sea.

"So, what sports Haruno-"

"Sakura. Just call me Sakura-chan," She interrupted, uncomfortable with the formality of his referral to her.

"So, Sakura-chan, any sports you interested in?"

"I was a mega nerd so sports didn't really interest me, except for the ones involving martial arts then yeah. I was quite an active member of my Taekwando club if I do say so myself."

"Well then, you should talk to Neji about it, he's the head of the club. Unless your hobbies are more towards reading and analyzing then I can help with the registration."

"What do you teach, Kakashi-sensei? And don't you have a girlfriend to attend to?" She asked as she picked up a stone and threw it to god knows where.

"That you will find out later and no, I don't have a girlfriend but I have a child to take care of."

"For a handsome person who reads the Icha Icha series, I would've thought that you were quite a favorite among the female students and teachers."

"For a innocent looking girl from an all-girls school, I would've thought you wouldn't know what Icha icha series is but we surprise each other, don't we?"

"More like disappoint each other." She quipped, not missing the beat of their conversation and sticking her tongue out at him childishly. She took out her phone seeing as it vibrated in her pocket and it looks like she got a text message from her mother.

_"Hey hun, how you doing? We'll be sending the rest of the things later in the week. How's registration?"_

_"It's great, I haven't seen the dorm yet but the dorms should be normal looking though."_

"We're here," his deep voice broke the silence as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as he stopped at the front door of a luxurious looking building that definitely did not look like a dormitory. He pushed the door open.

.

.

.

"Thank the lord for sponsors," she said with a far away tone, stepping into the brightly illuminated room and staring at all the gadgets in the room. 50 inch HD TV, state of the art stereo speakers and there was a ps4 with a whole shelf of games that wasn't even released anywhere, which baffled her to the point of stupefaction. Her last dormitory wasn't anything like this and she could get used to living here, no need to return home in months.

"It's like the Buchanan mansion in the great Gatsby only more modernized," she finally said, looking at her silver haired teacher with a blissful look in her green eyes. He whistled for someone and came in one blonde who ran through the halls and made his entrance as noisy as possible with his shouts and thundering footsteps. The blonde stopped beside Kakashi, a very big smile on his oddly whiskered face.

"This was the child I was talking about. He's Naruto and he's going to be your dormmate for the rest of your stay here. Naruto, Sakura."

"Nice to meet you, Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted with an enthusiastic shake of hands which he managed to make her hand feel like jelly but he had good intentions of being friendly which made her like him instantly.

"As much as I would like to go on, it's already late and you're probably tired from your trip here. Get some sleep, you've got quite a bit to do tomorrow and if you need anything, I'm here or you can always ask Naruto. Don't let his hyperactiveness turn you off, he's actually reliable," he ended the tour with that, leaving naruto to retort offendedly at his statement while Sakura was surprised her to know that it was already nighttime and true enough, it was 8 pm. Must've just been her being too excited seeing the campus grounds.

Naruto ushered her to the dining table where he served her a plate of tuna onigiri and a cup of hot chocolate as a sign of welcome to the new quarters. She sipped the hot chocolate and just groaned blissfully, this hot chocolate was better than her mother's. She would take note to have him make more of this in the future.

"Enjoying it? So, where you from and why did you come here?"

"Naruto, you gotta make more of this. I am from the land of Snow and I came here because well, I applied to get here for 3 years and I finaly got in, provided that I got a scholarship because of my grades and active curricular involvement," she reeled out, repeating her answer to Naruto before her head snapped to the sound of glass breaking which didn't phase Naruto.

"That's probably Ino or Kiba. They're both quite noisy neighbours to have but you'll get used to it. Bring your mug along, I'll introduce you to everyone and show you around ttebayo!"

And so he did, going up the stairs and into the second floor of the lavish complex which the second floor impressed her. There was a small living room where there was a tall shelf filled with books, a grand piano and a few loveseats for anyone to sit.

"Since this is a co-ed dorm, the boys stay on this floor so that they wouldn't peep at the girls. There are 2 empty room but don't worry you won't be staying in there. The only ones staying on this floor is me, Kiba, Lee, Shikamaru who always has his door open, Chouji and Neji. Neji and Shikamaru's not too bad but Kiba's known to cause quite a ruckus so it's better to have your ears plugged when you're sleeping."

And Sakura could hear a masculine scream from one of the closed rooms, followed by a loud bark which made her automatically assume that it was Kiba. She followed him up another flight of stairs and this floor seemed empty compared but the balcony facing the lush forestry that surrounded the Village had a few tables and chairs and a small scale garden decorated the space, making it look more pleasing to the eye.

She yawned loudly, finally feeling the drowsiness of the day's activities on her body. Naruto took her to her room, and she was a little surprised by the spaciousness of her room which she alone accomodated, a luxury of privacy that she wasn't allowed in her previous dorm.

"You can meet everyone tomorrow. As for the dorm rules, as long as you don't try to sneak out at night and you don't disturb the other dorms then everything's fine. For meals, usually we all just order take-out or just eat anything in the fridge. As for laundry, we all place our clothes in a basket and when it's full we just load it into the washer. It's a lot but you'll get used to it 'ttebayo!" She nodded dumbly, feeling the sleep creep into her nearly closed her sleepy eyes.

"If anything, just ask me okay!" He shouted before he disappeared from sight. She shut the door closed and flung herself on the bed, not bothering to change or turn off the lights because she was exhausted. She adjusted her sleeping position on the bed to a more comfortable one, texting her mother a brief goodnight before she slept with a smile on her face.

_I am going to enjoy this year._

_-o-_

Oh no she wasn't going to fucking enjoy this year. Not only did she wake up to a rude start, she also woke up in the middle of the night to Naruto sheepishly apologizing to her saying that she was supposed to stay on the second floor, with the rest of the BOYS. Her mood instantly darkened, what with her exhausted state of mind.

And the boys true to Naruto's words, were inconsiderate fuckers who didn't give shit about people sleeping on their floor. Not only did she have a hard time trying to sleep, they were banging on the walls like drunk animals. She tossed and turned, her sheets were crinkled and she was sweating. This wasn't how she imagined her first night would be.

_"DRINK DRINK DRINK!" they chanted, surrounding Naruto and Chouji who were at odds with each other in a beer drinking competition. The bet (aside from money) was that if Naruto lost, he would dye his hair black and he would pay for their meals for the rest of the month but if Chouji lost, he had to train AND Participate in anko's gauntlet run at the end of the month._

_Kiba and shikamaru placed 50 each on Chouji, Neji placed 100 on Naruto to make the betting fair. All of them were having a fun time, partying and having massive hangovers in the morning which was worth it._

_SLAM!_

_Their dong-measuring contest was interrupted, everyone snapped their head to the doorway where a pink haired girl stood there with clenched fists and muffin patterned pyjama pants._

_**"I WILL CUT YOUR DICKS OFF, STAPLE THEM TO YOUR FOREHEADS AND BURY YOU IN SWINE SHIT IF YOU DON'T STOP SCREAMING LIKE UNCULTURED BABOONS!"**_

That stopped them from drinking and slinked back to their rooms immediately. Even one of the girls came downstairs and congratulated her on taming what was the 'local tavern' into the 'church'. She shrugged thinking that if she didn't bring a knife with her they wouldn't have taken her seriously. That would actually teach them to do so.

But it didn't help that she was still very sleepy and she felt like she could pass out any time. So she groaned and dug her face into the table, hoping that the teacher would be late so she could catch some sleep. She didn't even know why she even bothered coming to school today if she was this tired. Even her inner self was too tired to have sarcastic bouts with her.

The door slid open and she groaned even louder, hearing everyone push their chair and standing up so that they could greet the teacher. Damn manners and sausage club people, making her lose sleep.

"I know you're all excited to have me back," the voice spoke to the class. She didn't bother standing up or raising her head, she was too sleepy and the desk felt awfully nice to sleep on until she heard footsteps come her way and a warm presence make itself known by standing beside her. So she raised her head up, her dozy green eyes widened to saucers.


	2. Hello, hello!

An honest mistake

Chapter 2 : hello, hello!

**This took me two whole days to write and I really needed to get this chapter out because exams finished and I'm excited. I hope you all enjoy this chapter! **

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited and alerted this story. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

><p><em>"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!" She chanted to herself. Not only did she embarrass herself but she also threw a tray of food to an innocent person who was just there judging by the crisp-looking suit he wore, for a normal meal and she ruined his lazy afternoon by throwing her fries all over him, lettuce hanging from his hair and don't even mention the tomato sauce stain on his dress shirt. It was horrible.<em>

_What's worse was she ran out immediately after, not bothering to help the man clean himself or pay for his next meal as compensation- She just ran out. Her mother would scold her for her rude manners while her weird grandmother might applaud her for it. Both assumpstions which didn't stop the guilt accumulating in her chest and making her feel very restless all the time._

_She didn't tell anyone about the incident and she was successful in making her friend believe that she would burn her clothes if she told anyone about it. Well, her trusty pal, a kitchen knife helped in making the threat a success but it didn't matter as long as the warden didn't know about it or she could be expelled permanently. _

_So for the days that passed after it, she formulated a plan. It was called, plan 'Apology' and what she had to do was waltz into the same Mcdonalds she embarrassed herself in, apologize by buying him a meal and they would part ways grudge free or and she could live peacefully knowing she made amends. It was simple and foolproof, nothing could go wrong._

_Except that in her plan, she forgot to include an internal factor which was her own restlessness and anxiety in meeting the guy._

_So she walked in the Mcdonalds, feeling slightly unnerved by all the stares she got from the employees who knew what she did. She searched for the man inside the restaurant, searching for a ball of black and a glacial-looking expression with an intense gaze in his eyes that felt like he was staring into your soul. An unforgettable type of person really._

_**"That's what you get for throw fod at people. Now you're in deep shit."**_

_"Shut up, I'm not giving up. I will find him," she quipped back, determined to find this man and apologize to him. She would wait all night if she had to, inclusive of a few orders of chicken mcnuggets for lunch and mcflurry for dessert of course. She took a seat and texted her friend to cover for her if the warden asked where she was, receiving an 'okay' promptly after._

_So she checked her wristwatch, looked around and waited. Waited. Waited._

_1.00 p.m : He hasn't shown up yet. No orders made yet._

_2.30 p.m : Still hasn't shown up but it's okay, an order of mcchicken helped satisfy her rumbling stomach._

_5.30 p.m : 3 hours later and still hasn't shown up. Two empty cups of mcflurry is seen on her table._

_6.30 p.m : 4 mcflurries and a cheeseburger was seen being eaten by her, to the employees amusement. She was probably the subject of their snapchat stories._

_By 7.00 p.m, she stood up and head for the counter to order her last sundae for the day. As she walked over to the counter, she slapped herself for not realizing sooner that it was the weekend and the guy might've had plans today. So, she stood in front of the counter, feeling both annoyed and tired with how the day was going. She just wanted to get back to dorm and sleep._

_"Can I have a chocolate sundae please?" _

_"Are you sure that will be all, miss?" The lady behind the counter wiggled her eyebrows suggestively which Sakura stared at her in confusion. This lady was the only one serving her for the past 5 hours, why would she ask if she wanted more? Then, Sakura noticed that the lady was staring at something and Sakura looked too, realizing that the lady was staring at a person and not a 'thing'._

_And that person, was the very person she was waiting for all this 5 hours -Tall, smart looking with an undercut to give a contrasting edge to his overall formal appearance. He sat down at a table, eyes focused on his phone screen with his hand covering the lower part of his face. She turned back to the cashier, and panicked. She didn't know what to do or say. What if he didn't accept her apology, what if he decided to dump ice cream on her instead?!_

_"Oh my god, what do I say, what do I do, help?"_

_"Why not take your sundae and give it to him?" The cashier answered back. Sakura nodded dumbly, paid for the sundae and with a deep breath, walked over to the scary man's table with the sundae in her shaking hand._

_She took a seat in front of him, earning quite an indifferent look from him as she sat down. The man was now up front and close, looking down on her from a menacing point of view while she fidgeted in her spot. She bowed her head and looked to the shoes she was wearing, unsure and feeling all to embarrassed to apologize or even speak. _

_She took a deep breath and slowly and silently slid over the sundae to him, feeling his intense gaze pierce holes into her small frame. With her head bowed before him, she let out the deep breath she was holding and said to herself it was now or never._

_"My name is Haruno sakura and I'm sorry for mcdunking you."_

* * *

><p>She grabbed the man's hand and stared at him, surprising him and everyone in the classroom.<p>

_**"It's not him," **_she thought to herself as she finally let him go, mumbling a low sorry and bowing her head in respect to him. The focus on her died down as her teacher strolled back to the front of the class normally to begin with whatever he had planned. She felt the blood rushing to her cheeks and heating them up in embarrassment.

In her dreamlike daze, she thought her own teacher was him. She saw him there, smiling and introducing himself like the first time they met. It didn't help that her teacher looked awfully similar to with his unkept hair and an extremely potent stare that she comically dubbed was the gaze of god

That's it, She rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes. Determined not to let her daydreams fool her. Not even the flying black thing under her desk fazed her. She was going to be a good and diligent student, that's how she got in and that's how she is going to carry herself around. She focused on the teacher who clearly had some things for them to do.

"So, as you all know, I am Uchiha Shisui and I am your homeroom teacher for this year. I will be teaching you guys Calculus and I don't tolerate failure too well so for everyone who DOES fail, I have a special surprise for you," he ended his warning with a cool and easy tone. Everyone groaned, moaned and nodded dumbly before they took out their books to start learning.

She loved calculus, breathed calculus, in her previous school she was the dictionary everyone always referred to when they had problems involving calculus. But her mastery in the subject required her entire attention plastered on the teacher on all times with her notes being written down diligently so that she could revise it later. How was she going to be a dictionary if all she could think of was sleep, sleep, sleep?

Being a good student is hard. Maybe it was because she hasn't adjusted. Maybe it is hard being a good student. She was rambling.

Her head hit table as she groaned loudly. She had her book out and copied down whatever was on the board but she wondered how she would understand it later, because her handwriting was scrawled over like a chicken. If he said anything, then all she heard was the number three and a series of add, subtract and formulas she would never understand because she was so sleepy.

She was going to sleep at the next mention of 5, she was going to sleep. Yes.

'Psst,' she heard someone called out to her. The blonde beside her nudged her and she returned the gesture with a sleepy/annoyed look on her face. The blonde was definitely saying or whispering something and obviously she couldn't hear it.

"What?" She finally said, irritated.

"You've got some nerve, grabbing the teacher's hand like that. You're going to get a lot of angry fangirls coming your way."

"Sometimes when you're sleepy, you just really don't care," she replied, ending the conversation abruptly and resting her head on the table at an angle where Uchiha-sensei couldn't see her sleeping. Her eyes, felt really heavy and she couldn't keep them open anymore. A few minutes wouldn't kill anyone. After all, Archduke Franz Ferdinand didn't die by sleeping.

.

.

.

The blonde kept nudging her, and she just swatted her elbow away. But the blonde was quite persistent with her nudging that it eventually paid off when the pink haired sleepy head got up and huffed out in annoyance, blinking herself awake and adjusting to the brightness of the room.

There it was again, black and zooming through the classroom in its speed which didn't seem to bother anyone. No one was turning their heads so the black thing flying here and there was definitely something she imagined. She rubbed her eyes, feeling something softly land on the crown of her head before the small weight lifted off.

"What did he say?" She asked, feeling awake enough to focus on the lesson. Her classmate on the other hand, was not focused on the teacher but was quite wide eyed and pointing a finger at her shoulder. Confused, she turned to her shoulder wanting to see what the blonde was fussing about.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

She jumped out of her seat and viciously the cockroach off her shoulder, losing sight of the disgusting insect and again earning the unwanted attention from everyone who had their legs hugged to their chests to avoid a cockroach crawling up their leg. Uchiha-sensei finally walked over to them to see what was the problem and he was quite weirded seeing his students hugging their legs while they looked to the floor scared.

"Something wrong?" He asked Sakura, searching for whatever it is bothering his students.

"Yeah, there's a cockroach in class and can someone hand me deodorant and a lighter so that I can kill it?" She replied, after being handed the things she needed for the insect extermination. While she sneaked around the class like a predator- deodorant in the left and lighter on the right hand while her teacher seemed to find the distressing ordeal funny as he laughed to himself with his fingers hiding the obvious grin on his handsome face.

"Burning it is not going to kill it, you know."

"Well, we don't have a cockroach spray so we will have to make do with what we have and that is, deodorant and lighter," she emphasised by lifting both items at the mention of them. He laughed again and returned to the front so that he could watch the students antics from a better view because he knew what was going to happen anyway.

She bent her back and walked slowly to see whether the cockroach was really under the students feet. She had the deodorant and lignter in a steady grip and ready to be used if the cockroach should launch a surprise attack on her but she's done this so many times in her previous dorm that she was called the cockroach terminator- a title she wasn't fond of and wouldn't mention to her new friends.

"Sakura, it's here!"

She jumped, aimed the deodorant at it and started spraying as she lit the lighter, creating a large burst of flame that even she was worried that the deodorant can would combust. Luckily it didn't and the cockroach was burned, a job well done which she smirked smugly to her teacher at the front who also mimicked her expression back at her.

"See? I killed it."

"The only thing you gave it was an upgrade," he replied back as he pointed to the dead carcass of the cockroach. She looked to the ground and found that the cockroach wasn't dead after all. Actually, it was wiggling it's antenna's and opening it's wings.

And it started to fly.

* * *

><p>"How was standing outside the class with a bucket on your head?"<p>

"Even harder than holding two of them on each arm," she replied and took a bite of the onigiri she followed Naruto through the busy hallway.

Her first day wasn't really turning out to be the best of days, as she expected it to.

This morning, she woke up late and wore the wrong school uniform which made her rush back in to change into her current school attire. On her way, she somehow managed to lead herself to the gardens of the school and she wasn't sure how. After asking for directions and running, she managed to reach her class on time to her relief.

But she was met with a burning flying cockroach and a punishment from Uchiha-sensei : balancing a bucket of water on your head while holding two buckets of them as well. That punishment tired her arms out like hell. To think that her teacher knew what was going to happen and he didn't tell her to stop like a responsible adult should. Instead, he watched as everyone ran and effectively killed the cockroach by slamming a book on it.

The thought of his smug smirk after his kill made her so angry!

Luckily, Naruto noticed her darkened mood and brought her to the roof top for lunch to calm her down. She wouldn't be able to reach the canteen anyway, seeing as she had the tendency to get lost easily. Also, she could sense some evil eyes glaring at her and she suspected it had something to do with her grabbing Uchiha-sensei's arm in class.

He rooftop was surprisingly empty aside a few benches, long tables and a few potted plants. This place certainly gave a distinct feeling of serenity as you could get away from the crowd of students and you couldn't hear anything besides the birds chirping here. She loved it here, she loved the feeling of being able to get away. She would definitely come up here to study.

"Don't start without me! I'm hungry too 'ttebayo!" Naruto snapped her out of her daydream , shouting at a circle of students she didn't notice from before. She followed and stayed close to him as she didnt know anyone yet. Everyone greeted her and seemed to accept her addition in the group easily, to her relief.

Today's meals were plain : store-bought bread, store-bought salads and two stuffed bentos. She joined in the meal, taking the tempura from the bento and gave the onigiri she managed to prepare to whoever wanted it.

"Oh yeah everyone, this is Sakura." Naruto said in between munches, realizing that he hadn't introduced Sakura to everyone yet.

"So this is the girl that scared the shit out of you guys. I'm Ino. Sorry for not introducing myself in class, Shisui hates it when we talk in his class," the blonde introduced herself as she took a munch of her onigiri which she moaned 'so good' to Sakura. Sakura stared at her disbelievingly for addressing her teacher by his name so casually. It certainly spoke volumes of her bold character.

"I'm Chouji and this is Shikamaru. Don't mind him, he's always sleeping anyway," the boy introduced himself and his friend who stirred his sleep a little by the mention of his name in the brief introduction.

"I-I-I'm Hinata. Nice to meet you, Sakura-san," the dark-haired girl meekly introduced herself. Hinata was definitely a stark contrast with Ino because Hinata had this polite and friendly air whereas Ino breathed confidence and definitely looked like the type who spoke her mind and is brutally honest to everyone. Either way, she liked them both.

Although, she noticed that there were a few people fro dorm that were missing in the circle, five if she counted correctly. She turned to Naruto to ask about their whereabouts while he pointed his chin to Hinata for answers.

"Kiba and Shino is still in class while Neji, Tenten and Lee are preparing for the club's first meeting today."

"Wait, don't you wait until the second week then you have the club meetings?" she asked, slightly confused at the thought of club meetings on the first day but curious about the versatile range of clubs this school offered.

"Usually, the same students are in the same club so the teachers thought it would be easier to have everything settled by the first day. I-I'm in the painting club, Ino is in the botanic club, Shikamaru and Chouji are in the cooking club while the rest of them are in different martial arts clubs," explained Hinata before taking a small bite of the tempura.

The other clubs sounded okay and she wasn't too enthusiastic about them but the sound of a martial arts club caught the pink-haired girl's attention though.

"How many martial arts clubs are there and who runs them?"

_RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!_

The shrill alarm of the school bell rang, signaling the end of recess and the start of the next class. Everyone picked up their rubbish and cleaned up the place before leaving for their respective classes. Hinata promised to give her a list of the clubs by the end of the day so that Sakura could choose the club she wanted to join. Hinata was such a sweetheart, Sakura thought to herself.

"What's your class after this?" Ino asked. Sakura took out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and smoothed it out so that her friends could see her class roster. Ino was impressed and noted that most of Sakura's classes like Shikamaru were the advanced classes, meaning she would have to sit with the seniors which worried Sakura.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan, if anyone gives you trouble then you can count on me dattebayo!" Naruto reassured her and she found a small comfort in his words. He certainly had this sincere way of charming people to believe in the things he say, or believe in him entirely.

"Yeah, but Sakura you have art after this which is, Sai-sensei's class. Hot teacher alert," Ino said as she fanned herself. Looks like crushes on teachers were a thing here.

Naruto warned her about Sai's habit of saying whatever comes to his mind unfiltered so she should not take his words to heart. She brushed it off and thought how hard would it be in an art class. After all, she could definitely relieve the tension in her through some random splash of paint. Ino would be with her so she should be in good hands.

* * *

><p>She should have listened to Naruto.<p>

Everything Sai was saying to her was insults one after another from the way her art looked like a 5 year olds drawing all the way to how she walked back and forth across the room, gathering supplies and restarting because he asked her to. Each time the result not satisfactory and gradually worsened. Ino on the other hand, had decent skills in art but Sakura felt that maybe he was a little biased to her with his praises and helping her out when she called out to him when he didn't blink an eye to the other students pleas for help.

She rubbed her temples of her aching head. Art was definitely not her best subject.

He came back to her, an empty looking expression on his unusually pale skin. It was terrible and she knew it but even his insults were starting to wear out her patience and she wasn't blessed with buddha-like patience.

"If only you weren't so ugly."

* * *

><p>That was all it took.<p>

One little insult from a socially inept teacher, was what landed her into detention. His last insult snapped her patience and punched the fake smile off his face. A number of horrified gasps were heard as he fell down and rubbed the bruised lip, trying to numb the pain from her punch. He stood back and up without hesitation, sent her to detention.

So much for pleasant first meetings.

Of course, who else is better to monitor a spitfire like her if it wasn't her great calculus teacher, Uchiha-sensei?

So they were both alone in the classroom - She sat at the desk in the front row while he was sitting at the teacher's desk and busying himself with marking away the student's homework. She looked at the clock and felt a sense of dread build up in her chest, the club meetings was starting and she was stuck in detention instead of registering for the club she wanted.

_**"Way to go, Sakura. Pissing off teacher's definitely a good way to leave an impression on them."**_

_**"Fuck off," **_Sakura cursed at her other self. It was wrong to piss of the teacher and her other self had to rub it in.

Perhaps, she could ask the teacher to let her off detention early and promise not to cause any more trouble. At least, no more trouble for the day because she's caused enough of it already. She looked at Uchiha-sensei and instantly thought nope because she knew that he'd definitely say no. So she slumped on her desk, feeling defeated and choosing to sleep the detention off

_Hehe_

She raised her head and saw her teacher snickering at her. Apparently, he found her misery more entertaining than writing big, red crosses and ticks on his student's works. She sent an angry pout his way as he placed his pen down and leaned forward with his arms crossed on the table. He was waiting, the smiling bastard.

"I don't think my feeling down in the slumps is something to laugh about."

"Oh but the burning flying cockroach was definitely something to laugh about."

"Then why didn't you the responsible adult stop me if you knew it would happen?! It's like you're pranking us for shits and giggles!"

"Isn't that what pranks are supposed to be for? For shits and giggles, hmm?" He asked her back in a jesterly tone, making her huff in annoyance at him and lean back into her seat with her arms crossed like a child throwing a tantrum.

He mimicked her expression: lean back, arms crossed and pouted his lips in mock playfulness. One look, she glared at him distastefully. Second look and she was trying to control her laughter with a stern expression on her face but ultimately failing as she broke out in a smile and laughed uncontrollably.

Uchiha Shisui with his lower lip jut out in a pout was very, very cute. Not that she would say it to him.

He stood up from the teacher's desk, walked over to her, pulled out a chair and sat in front of her. The sudden increase in proximity enabled her to smell the faint scent of cigarettes and the mint gum he was chewing on. She could also see (with the help of really bright sun light) that his hair was a dark shade of brown instead of a full-on coal colored black hair and he had a small dimple of his left cheek which she didn't notice because she was too sleepy to get a proper look at him.

"Want some gum?" He offered, which she took rather warily. She briefly wondered if he was this friendly with his students, able to just walk to a student and start a casual conversation as if they were friends instead of being teacher and student. Besides, he was actually quite handsome up-close and more pleasant outside of class than the firm facade he had in the classroom.

He smiled at her, showing off his pearly whites and making the dimple more prominent. He must've realized that she was staring, which she blushed and mumbled a low apology to him. Directing her attention to the clock again, she sighed wistfully. She will definitely miss the club meeting now.

"I heard from Kakashi-san that you're a new student. Haruno, right?"

"Sakura, actually. Haruno's the family name."

"So, what's a pretty girl like you doing here? The school you were from was quite a prestigious school, and equipped with the best facilities. Why come to a school like this?"

"I really, really wanted to get into this school because my parents were talking about this school and how it was the best school during their time. My parent's couldn't send me here when I was 13 and I've been applying to get in ever since," she explained, brushing off his compliment as his pleasant way of starting conversation.

"Why not?" He asked back, curious.

"Money was the problem. I come from a middle class family so it was either get a scholarship or go to another school that was cheaper and since I didnt get a scholarship at the time, the school I was previously in was the best choice."

"Didn't you like it there? I mean, an all girls school that was quite popular nationwide must've had its perks."

"I hated my first year there. I was bullied by the seniors there and forced to do their chores. I only stayed because staying there bosted my chances of getting in here. True enough, three years of applying and being a goody two shoes students did help me get in here," she explained in an abridged version of her experience.

She hated. She hated her first year, especially orientation week.

She was quite famous that year for her rebellious attitude. She would be the one going against the senior's and she would be the dumping ground of chores as punishment. Washing the shoes, doing their laundry, finishing their homework, you name it. Those same seniors were also responsible for a prank on the teachers which they blamed her for it.

She didn't mention her constant crying throughout that year. Yes, she hated the seniors and hated what they did to her but sometimes the things they said got to her, or the way they treated her made her feel like the scum of the earth. She cried at night because of them and funny thing about crying was, her tears left a stain on her pillow so she always flipped her pillows so that people wouldn't see them. Luckily no one noticed them, or they never bothered to say it at all.

"That kinda reminds me of my first year as a dorm student. I was a student at an all boy's school in the land of snow, and I was bullied but not so terrible as you. I wasn't bullied because I was the one bullying them," he inserted his school experience into the conversation, feeling a bit nostalgic when he heard her story.

"What about flying?"

"A common thing and I didn't get caught, surprisingly. But flying when you're in the land of snow seems illogical because it's always snowing and the only place you can go to was the stadium and convenience store. You wouldn't go into the forest even if you were desperate."

"Well, did you camp out in the forest?" She asked teasingly and he laughed. He took out a cigarette, lit it and started smoking in the class room. He looked out the class room window with a calculated expression on his handsome face.

"When you're young, you do crazy stuff. That's all I'm going to say," he said finally as he ruffled her hair, making her pout at him childishly. He looked at his wrist watch and found that there was 10 more minutes left of detention. He was also, very hungry. He heard a loud noise across him and laughed, Sakura was hungry too which she blushed a bright red in embarrassment.

"Is your majesty hungry?"

"Ha ha very funny," she replied in a german accent sarcastically. He motioned for her to get up while she was confused by his invitation. They have 10 minutes left so shouldn't might as well finish detention time?

"I'm hungry, you're hungry, might as well grab a snack at the school canteen," he explained, walking ahead of her and forcing her to scramble after him because like Kakashi, he was tall and his walking pace might as well be her running phase. He noticed her running after him and laughed raucously.

"You want me to slow down, shortie?" He said after slowing down, ruffling her hair and earning a pout from her.

He was definitely ruffling her hair more, a new habit he formed to annoy her and he was going to enjoy it.

* * *

><p>"Sakura-chan, you missed the meeting and you're back late. What happened?"<p>

"Uchiha-sensei decided to treat me to dinner at the ramen store nearby which was delicious," replied Sakura to answer Hinata's question. She dumped her bag on the floor and slumped on the dining table, feeling very full and very sleepy.

"Na-Naruto-kun, likes to eat there. Here's the pa-pamphlet I promised you."

"It's damn good ramen and thank you Hinata-chan," Sakura replied as she took the pamphlet from Hinata, scanning it through to see the clubs that she wanted to join and she chose the Mixed Martial Arts club. It would be good to learn more about her fighting knowledge than just the basic taekwando. Hinata handed her a cup of hot chocolate before going upstairs to sleep.

"Before I forget, Neji-kun said that he would reserve a spot for you in the club but you're going to have to prove your abilities against other people first. Goodnight, Sakura-chan."

"Goodnight Hinata," said Sakura as she stood up and walked over to the kitchen. She wanted to get a glass of water but she stopped in her tracks, disgusted by the sight of unwashed dishes in the sink and the smell of mouldy food coming from it. She closed her nose, walked over to the fridge, got her glass of water and dashed out of the kitchen.

She's had enough for the day. She couldn't stand a dirty kitchen but she wasn't going to be the person cleaning it.

* * *

><p><strong>The dorm experience is actually real. So review and tell me if I'm exaggerating a bit because really, I dont know whether I was. Anyway, thank you for reading!<strong>


	3. Come in

Chapter 3 : Come in

**Hello everyone, welcome to chapter three of the AHM series. Yes, another chapter in just a week because I will be busy doing scripts for my school drama next year and a folio that I will have to finish in a week (i might just procrastinate more and publish another chapter next week, welp)But I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did writing it but I had doubts, because I thought I was exaggerating a bit.**

**To missprez2007 : I liked reading your explanation on the dorm experience in Purdue and yes, my version of a dorm is based on an asian dorm (well drama is also true). As for the whole art thing, yes Sasori and Deidara will appear in the later chapters. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter!**

**And to everyone, thank you for reading this story! Please, favorite, alert and review if you have anything to say! **

* * *

><p><em>"Class, we have a new student coming in and I hope all of you would be nice to him."<em>

_It made no difference if they were nice to him or not. At the end of the day, he would prove himself far superior than everyone in the class and eventually, anyone in the school. So far in his previous three schools, he had no quarrels in achieving such a measly target seeing as everyone were slackers and they had no drive or ambition to strive for at such a young age._

_But he did._

_His mother was worried about him, often quarreling with his father about his education and his rapid increase in learning. He didn't see the problem in it, he thought that his parents would be proud if he continuously excelled in everything. His father showed no objections neither did he give any positive response but his mother was the one doting on him frequently._

_She always asked whether 'he was adjusting well', 'does he have any problems in school' or 'do you need help, Sasuke?'._

_He simply answered no to all of them. He was doing fine, growing up fine and just happened to have a natural aptitude for success in whatever he put his mind to. But even for all of his sparkling awards and flattering praises about his clean 100% results and stellar performance in sports, his father never cared. Why?_

_Because he is not Itachi._

_His brother achieved the same clean 100% results on every test he took (which were international papers) with multiple international awards in so many curricular activities that he couldn't list all of them down. When compared to him, Sasuke's achievements was nothing and well, it made Sasuke feel like nothing too._

_So he pushed on, pushed himself to endless limits and ended up with a high fever. He cursed himself for it, his weakness was taking away precious time. Time which could be used to sharpen his skills and ultimately prove to his father, that he was better than Itachi._

_That he was worthy of his attention too._

_During that high fever, his father never took the time to see how he was recovering. But he was definitely sure of one thing, his parents had a fight that night._

_"Fugaku, why can't you take time off to take care of Sasuke?!" His mother shouted, the angriest he's heard from her in his life._

_"He will be fine. If Itachi could do well without our surveillance then Sasuke surely can."_

_"But Sasuke is not Itachi! Fugaku, we have two children, not one and a carbon copy of Itachi! Why can't you understand that?!" Sasuke shifted slightly, letting his back face the door and covering his ears from this painful conversation._

_His parents argued even louder- Mikoto accusing Fugaku of his obvious biasness towards their eldest son while Fugaku countered that accusation with Mikoto being too soft on their youngest son. Saying that Sasuke would end up being a spoiled child if she kept treating him like he was something special._

_Sasuke covered his ears even harder with his pillows, tears dripping from the tip of his nose and onto his pillow. Why was life so unfair? Why was he always second? Why couldn't his father act like a normal father just this once? There were so many questions asked and yet, he didn't have the answer to all of them._

_"Listen here Fugaku, I won't let you push Sasuke any longer. From now on, he will go to a normal school and experience a normal life as a normal kid or so god help me, I will file a divorce and you can say goodbye to your position as both Head of the Uchiha Police Corp and head of this family."_

_This bold statement made little Sasuke's eyes pop open as Fugaku's abrupt silence followed after. He could see from the shadows through his open door formed dimly from the light in his hallways, that his father had his head bowed while his mother had her hands curled by her side. His father said nothing and merely left the room in an agitated pace, clearly furious at being threatened by his own wife._

_**SLAM!**_

_It was rare he could see his father act so meek and even rarer that to hear his own mother aggressively establish her own fierce dominance on his stern father._

_He could hear his mother let out a heavy, wistful sigh and see her cross her arms before she entered the room. She slowly walked to him, sitting beside him and soothingly stroke his back. Wiping his tears away, he shifted his body so that he faced his own mother and hoped that she couldn't see that he cried. _

_"Sasuke, are you having fun?" She asked, stroking his forehead gently as she had a look of concern on her face._

_He didn't nod or shake his head, instead he leaned into her touch to comfort himself from the truth of his answer. She laughed a little and sweeped him into her arms, hugging him tightly so that her love could reach her son even though he was fever-stricken._

_True enough, her feelings did reach him and he cried in her arms, fiinally letting go of all expectations of staying strong and being better than his brother. He could feel his mother holding him even tighter and his body shaking even harder as his sadness raked his whole body like a hurricane. It was hard trying to impress his father but it was even harder not to cry every time his own father dismissed him without a look at what he's achieved._

_"Why won't otou-sama love me?" He sobbed out, his hands gripping at his mother's shirt as he dug himself deeper into his mother's shirt. His mother brought him closer, hand placed on his head protectively as her lips kissed the crown of it lovingly. _

_She didn't answer his question but hugged him all night as he sobbed into her shirt, spilling out every insecurity he's felt throughout the years. He was grateful that she hugged him that night, things were so much easier after that._

_"Sasuke, come in," he was called, snapping out of his brief day dream. He entered the room and stood in front of the class, scanning every individual in the class with an indifferent look on his face. Some were talking, some were silent, girls were giggling at him._

_"Why don't you introduce yourself, Sasuke-kun?" His teacher asked politely._

_Honestly, he was feeling a little nervous, seeing as this was his first time being registered at a public school and it was also his first time introducing himself. But if he was going to be better than Itachi, he would have to face any challenges head on without feeling scared or shy. He recited his mantra to himself, conceal don't feel._

_"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. My hobby is walking and I like eating tomatoes," he said simply._

_The girls were swooned by him that day and dubbed him, Prince Dreamy. The boys hated him, girls wanted to date him, parents wanted to adopt him. His school year went off without a problem and he pushed himself even harder than before._

_Like he said, it made no difference if they were nice to him or not. He would cast away his feelings and prove to his father one thing._

_He was better than Itachi in every way._

* * *

><p>Sakura walked past the kitchen, grabbing a can of coffee and avoiding the pile of unwashed dishes that called out to her.<p>

"Not today dishes," she said as she opened the can and waltzed her way casually to the front door.

Not today.

* * *

><p>"Sakura-chan did you hear? We're getting a new classmate dattebayo!"<p>

"Huh?" She said, can of coffee tipped at the corner of her mouth. She placed it down, and looked at Naruto with her nose cringed. Second week of school and they're getting a new classmate already? Wait, why were the school admistrators even accepting students when registration finished last week?

Heck, if she knew she could register and come in today, she would've stayed at home, waited till she fully packed her stuff for her new dorm life and properly sorted her release forms from her previous school. Thankfully, they were dealt with and she is now a fully fledged student of Konoha High. On another note, she also received her suitcase of her clothes, toiletries and books when her family came over to visit last weekend.

Generally, it was a nice week for her last week despite the punching the art teacher incident. Now she only hoped that this week would be better and find a way to get that damned art class out of her roster of required subjects she needed to take.

"So, who's the new kid and why so late in registering?" She asked, ending her monologue and focused on more important and current issues that had everyone buzzing about. Even her arrival didn't attract so much attention and she had pink hair!

Before Naruto could answer her question, Ino slammed the doors open and came running in- hair dishevelled, chest heaving and a blush painted her pale cheeks. She was what they would call a 'hot mess' but Sakura wasn't interested in anything hot or messy. She's more interested in this new student Naruto mentioned and Ino certainly looked like she knew more about it than Naruto.

"So?"

"H-he's hot!" She stuttered out, still trying to catch her breath. Sakura took a sip of her coffee and waited for Ino to finally breathe normally before she could bombard the blonde with her questions.

"Hot how?"

"Tall, dark and handsome kind of hot. He's a a bit unfriendly but that's probably because he's playing hard to get. He's so dreamy~"

"Careful, Ino. You might just flunk Art class if Sai-sensei heard you say that," said Sakura with a condescending tone.

Still, tall, dark and handsome. He's probably rich too unless he came here on a scholarship basis like she did but hearing Ino describe in full detail about the boy's well kept appearance and his arrival in a swanky limousine, she found that 'scholarship' and 'new kid' in a sentence didn't coincide.

She hovered her sight to the front and found that there was no sign of Kakashi-sensei anywhere. She looked at her wristwatch, it was still 30 minutes too early for him to come to class unless today decided to be different and surprise them all.

As if, she said to herself as she sipped the last remains of her coffee.

"Stand up, class!"

She stood up automatically at the command but she was surprised, really surprised to see Kakashi actually arrive to class on time and who he brought with him (to the girls excitement) was the new kid everyone was talking about. Sakura was impressed, Ino's words were to be trusted because she gave her a spot on description of the boy's appearance.

Accurately : Tall, dark and handsome.

But there was more to the boy than his appearance. It was the way he carried himself with long, confident strides with no hair out of place despite the windy weather and stood in front of the class, oozing breathtaking charisma and razor sharp perfection just by his rigid stance.

He was going to have his own fan club soon enough and judging by the all around giggling and squealing, it would be a big fanbase. Maybe, it's numbers would rival the amount of fans by the other fanbases this school had combined. That was how potent Uchiha Sasuke's presence affected the female population.

But even with the girls squealing at the sight of him and even she admitted to herself that he was supermodel gorgeous, there was something she didn't particularly like about him. There was something in his expresionless face for all of its perfection screamed 'don't-touch-me' unfriendliness and the intense, brooding gaze he had helped establish that opinion of him on her.

"Don't you think he's dreamy?" Said Ino as she propped her chin on her hand.

"Listen class. As you all know we have a new student in our class, and I hope that all of you treat fairly as he will be your classmate for the rest of your school year. Why don't you introduce yourself, young man?"

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. my hobby is walking and I like eating tomatoes."

His voice was what made the girls scream : Low, deep and smooth. If before he hadn't captured everyone's attention, he definitely did now.

Ino was beside her, head on her desk as she giggled uncontrollably while Hinata still had her back straight, a sweet smile on her lips. Hinata seemed unaffected by the whole craze and she looked like she was staring at someone else in the room. Sakura closely followed the direction of where Hinata was staring at, and she too smiled at whose head her green eyes landed on.

"Be careful Hinata. Ino would tease you if she found out," Sakura whispered slyly as she bent forward to Hinata's ear, making Hinata jump and blush from embarrassment. She laughed at Hinata's shyness, Hinata really was the cutest.

"Looks like you can take over Ino's seat, Sasuke. Ino will sit beside Shikamaru," Kakashi ordered simply. Ino stood up and slammed her fists on the desk furiously, glaring at Kakashi and Sakura before she left her seat reluctantly. Ino mouthed 'I'm watching you' to her before she slunked on her new table defeatedly.

Sakura could only could muster an apologetic look to her poor friend but nonetheless welcomed Sasuke to his new place.

"Hello Sasuke, I'm Sakura," she introduced herself, holding her hand out to him so that he could shake it, which he didn't. Instead, he refused to sit down and chose to stand up with his arms crossed firmly. For the second time in this school, she was once again the centre of attention for everybody in the class.

"Sasuke-san, why don-"

"Shut up, you're annoying," he declared, loud and clear. The class went silent as Hinata and Ino gasped, bewildered by the dreamy new kid's harsh response to Sakura's warm welcome. Naruto stood up and immediately marched over to their shared place, curling his fists so that he could punch the smug look off Sasuke's face.

Sakura bowed, covering her face from revealing the rush of emotions she felt from Sasuke's rude and unneeded comment to her classmates. She clawed the hem of her skirt tightly, hoping that Sasuke would just sit down and Naruto wouldn't cause a fight so that they could continue their lesson.

Sasuke bent over, placing his lips beside her ear. "You are just a girl and you will be crushed under me."

Sasuke straightened his back with a triumphant smirk on his aristocratic-looking face, proud that he scared the pink haired girl but he didn't anticipate her next move, which seemed to happen in such a blur that even caught him off guard.

He fell to the floor, rolling around slightly as he tried to nurse the pain he felt up his nose. She stood above him with her fists balled, chest heaving and her livid green eyes glaring holes into his pathetic self.

_**That's right, feel the pain from my headbutt you little twerp, **_she thought to herself. She straightened her posture, slowly scanning the shocked faces she got from everyone before she landed on Kakashi's nonchalant expression. If she dare say, he looked satisfied?

"Sakura, I know as satisfying as it felt, I have to send you to detention now."

* * *

><p>"Second time in detention. I'm starting to think you're just misbehaving because you want to see me, Sakura-chan."<p>

"Don't be ridiculous," she snapped at him sharply. She sat down and covered the lower part of her face with her arms crossed on the table, sulking and brooding at the unfairness of the situation she's in.

It didn't make sense, why was she the only one sent to detention? Just because Sasuke was the new kid didn't mean he gets a free pass to insult everyone. The least that rich bastard could do was be polite even if he did hate her guts at first sight. She dug her face deeper into her arms and groaned, feeling quite pissed with today's events, and it wasn't even Tuesday yet. It was still freaking Monday!

She felt a hand tap on her shoulder and she raised her head uninterestedly until she saw what was in Uchiha-sensei's hands. It was her personal favorite : homemade tuna onigiri.

She took the triangular ball of rice from his hand and wondered briefly whether this teacher had a girlfriend, wife or mother. As she took a bite, she closed her eyes as she felt her tastebuds explode with the deliciousness of the tuna mixed with mayonnaise and white pepper.

_**This is food from the heavens, **_her inner self sighed dreamily as she chowed down on the last remaining bits of the onigiri. Perhaps she was a person with simple tastes, but this riceball was everything. This riceball made her feel better, made her shoulders loosen and her anger at Sasuke dissipate from her mind. She sighed relievingly as she rested on the back of her chair, noticing her teacher's small smirk.

"I take it that it's delicious?"

"It is the best I've ever tasted. Who made this?"

"Well, I did," he answered with a bright smile on his face while Sakura stared at him disbelievingly. Damn he had better onigiri making skills and her onigiri disappeared seconds before she had a taste of it if she made it in broad daylight in the dorm which is why she reserved such talent for the night when people couldn't steal her onigiri.

He looked at her and laughed before asking, "Why are you so surprised?"

"I kinda thought you had a girlfriend or wife or mother to pack your food. I'm impressed, Uchiha-sensei."

"It would be nice to have a girlfriend or wife to make meals for me at home. At least I wouldn't have to worry about filling my stomach so much," he added sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and at the same time answering another question of her's unknowingly.

"Why were you sent to detention this time?" He asked, continuing their conversation and offering her a stick of panda pocky.

"I punched the new kid on the face. Uchiha Sasuke was his name, I think?"

A sudden silence filled the room as Shisui didn't continue the conversation as she expected him to. He looked at her with a calculated expression on his face and looked almost professional, like the teacher he was in class or he was a private detective trying to solve a case and she was his sidekick who came back from war traumatized.

He leaned forward and finally asked, "You actually punched Sasu-chan on the face?"

"It was a headbutt, but yeah. I still hurt him bad, bleeding nose and all."

He laughed and laughed **hard- **hands gripping his sides and his mouth was a wide open smile. She arched a fine eyebrow at the man in front of her, curious to know why her punching the rich bastard was amusing to him. Of course to her, it was amusing when she did it but being sent to detention kinda ruined the satisfaction of the moment.

"Sasu-chan is still the arrogant, tomato-loving child then."

"Sasu-chan?" She asked, confused about the pet name that stupid, rich boy had. Suddenly she realized,

Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Shisui. They were family.

"We are cousins. He was such a cute kid back then," he said after wiping a tear from all the laughter. He took out his wallet and showed her a picture of his childhood- A picture of him, Sasuke and another boy she vaguely recognized. Shisui stood in between them with two fishes on a stick while Sasuke was pouting, holding only one fish on a stick.

Puffy cheeks, wide eyes and a pout that made Sakura go 'aww!'. Sasuke and Shisui were cute, but how did a bright-eyed kid like Sasuke grow up into an annoying douchebag? She asked Uchiha-sensei and he shrugged, to her disappointment.

"You should try getting along with Sasuke. He can be cold and anal-retentive at most times but deep inside, he's actually a closet tsundere," he explained, taking out his phone from his pocket as it vibrated loudly. He looked at his wristwatch and stood up casually.

"Well, Sakura-chan looks like your detention has to be cut short because you have an appointment with Kakashi-sensei at classroom 10 and you wouldn't want to be late," Shisui explained as he shoved his phone back into his pocket and led her to the exit of them room.

"Why do I have to see Kakashi-sensei? Am I in trouble?"

"Just head over to classroom 10 and you'll find out. Unless you want to spend more time with me in detention then I am very flattered for your attention, Haruno-san," he teased her childishly as the both of them stood in the entry way. She puffed her cheeks in indignation at him but he only ruffled her hair, clearly unaffected by her childish antics.

"Oh and Sakura-chan," She stopped, hearing her teacher call out to her from afar.

"Try and get along with Sasu-chan, alright?"

* * *

><p>"Looks like I have another two children to take care of."<p>

She finally solved the puzzle of what he meant by the phrase 'taking care of a child' he said in their first conversation together.

There were three 'children' now - Naruto, her and _Sasu-chan. _They were dubbed as his children, a concept that their silver-haired teacher found oddly amusing. He asked all of them to sit down in a circle, immediately getting down to business.

"As Sasuke and Sakura might not know, every year a small group of students are assigned to a teacher and in this group, the students are expected to excel as a team but for that to happen, we've got to know each other better," he explained and she had a strong feeling that he was hinting at her bumpy first meeting with Sasuke.

"So for us to get to know each other better, we need to start with the basics; We have to introduce ourselves to each other," again Kakashi spoke. Sakura and Naruto whined at Kakashi's plan while Sasuke crossed his arms, not showing a positive reaction to Kakashi's plan either. Nonetheless, Naruto stood up to start first.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, my hobbies are eating ramen and I want to be a hokage someday!"

"I'm Haruno Sakura, my hobbies are reading and cooking. I would like to help people someday."

"I better have some of your cooking Sakura," Kakashi interrupted before he allowed Sasuke to continue with his introduction. Both of them squinted at Sasuke begrudgingly, feeling irritated with him even though he hadn't said anything yet.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. My hobby is walking and I would like to become the head of the Uchiha police Corp someday," the raven-haired student finished with his tone imitating the enthusiasm of a dead fish but she noticed a spark in his eyes as he mentioned the last part of his introduction.

"Kakashi-sensei, you haven't introduced yourself yet! That's not fair!" Naruto pointed out. Kakashi sighed and handed out a pamphlet of programs to his children. Sasuke and Sakura took them and scanned them over, Naruto on the other hand waited for them to finish reading because he knew the ins and outs of the programs like the ingredients to a good pack of ramen.

"Both of you can read what programs we're in for the rest of the year and it is compulsory to enter. Whatever it is, even if you guys are going against the rules, all of you have to stick up for each other. That is what it means to be a team," Kakashi stressed, successfully getting his point across to the trio as they nodded. He dismissed them, letting them go to do whatever they wanted to for the rest of the day.

"NOT SO FAST, KAKASHI!"

Sakura was startled, trying to find where the loud, boisterous voice came from until she saw a flash of green shoot their way.

"Kakashi m'boy, why don't we introduce our teams to each other before we have a competitive run of youth?" Proclaimed the bowl-haired man boldly as he hooked an arm around Kakashi's neck. Kakashi looked unaffected by the sudden intrusion of privacy and allowed for them to introduce themselves to another trio that looked like a group of seniors.

"Oh yeah, Sakura-chan you haven't met them yet! This is Lee, Neji and Tenten!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you," was Neji and Tenten's shared greeting but Lee was well, enthusiastic wasn't _exactly _the right adjective to describe his greeting.

"Have the fates decided to be kind to me? To have blessed me with such a heavenly sight of konoha's youthful beauty such as you?" Lee begun with a faraway, dramatic display of theatrics, in awe of her unique beauty.

Sakura as much as she wished to feel flattered just couldn't feel it because she was weirded out. She felt a bit prejudiced by saying this, but it was his overall appearance thturned her off from meeting him. So she retreated behind Naruto, using him as a shield against this new suitor.

"Sakura, Naruto, why don't you show Sasuke around the campus since he's new here?" Kakashi added, again making Sakura and Naruto groan from the added burden of having to drag Sasuke around. Both of them signed for Sasuke to follow and he did without a nasty remark, which both of them were grateful for.

* * *

><p>"Sakura, you are called to the teacher's staff room." Shisui called her out during his lesson on Friday. She stood up and walked to the door but Shisui didn't fail to sneak a momentary ruffle of her hair before she left.<p>

Sure, she was annoyed but she wasn't as annoyed as the raven-haired student glaring at them from the back of the classroom.

* * *

><p>She entered the teacher's staff room and approached Kakashi's desk, wondering what reason he called her for until she saw a woman talking to him at his desk. As she got closer, she was totally caught off guard by this woman's appearance.<p>

This woman was modestly dressed - three quarter black shirt and a skin colored, pleated skirt that stopped an inch above her slender ankles. The woman's raven hair was lustrous, looked smoother and healthier than Ino's perfectly groomed blonde hair. This woman's face well, she had no other words to describe her countenance other than gorgeous and youthful.

This woman would put Ino's beauty to shame.

The two adults looked her way, noticing Sakura's arrival at the silver haired man's desk.

"Looks like you have business to settle. Thank you for your time," the woman spoke in a soft voice before she left, catching the attention of every teacher in the room, including Kakashi himself. Even Sakura noticed that there was a plastic bag on his desk and she playfully guessed that it was lunch given to him by the woman, who might just be his girlfriend.

"And you told me you have no girlfriend," she teased him cheekily, a hand placed at her mouth like a generic trickster while Kakashi crossed his arms and sighed comically, correct in his assumption that Sakura _**would **_take the woman's visit the wrong way.

"That woman is Sasuke's mother and she came to apologize for his behavior," Sakura stared at him with wide green eyes. The Uchiha genes must have been blessed by God or at least injected with some super slow aging cells, because Sasuke's mother looked too young and too pretty to be considered human!

"She also came to make sure that he was making friends." Oh.

"That's a first. I thought parents came to see teachers because they want to know whether they're kids are doing well in their studies and not whether they're making friends."

"Sakura, Sasuke is a kid whose grades are guaranteed to be the best no matter where he goes. It's decent social interaction that he is clearly lacking in his skill department," Kakashi remarked openly, giving her a canned drink and pulled out a chair for her to sit. She started sipping her drink, asking why Kakashi called her.

"I want you to be close friends with Sasuke," he said simply, an order that made Sakura choke on her drink.

"But why me? Wouldn't Naruto be more suited to this job than I am? I punched Sasuke and I doubt he's going to let it go so soon."

"Naruto looks like he could punch Sasuke anytime. If you could do this small favour for me, I will give you extra credit for your final exams," this favor that he asked of her wasn't 'small' but the reward of extra credit was too good to pass up on and who knows, Sasuke might just be a pleasant person. So she agreed, with an unwilling heart.

"He's surrounded with wealth and a caring family, I don't know why's he got to be so angry at life about."

"Careful with your words Sakura. Just because people experience life differently doesn't mean you can pass judgement on them," advised Kakashi with a steel edge in his words. She wondered briefly whether those biased words stemmed from the arrival of Sasuke's mother but chose let it slide.

She left Kakashi's desk and made her way back to the classroom, catching Shisui's eye as he just left the class.

"Wanna grab lunch, Sakura-chan?" He asked cheerily, a little cheerful for her liking.

"I've got class-"

"You could always skip. You only have 40 minutes of the next lesson anyway," he interrupted eagerly. 40 minutes was quite a long time and she wasn't going to jump into the land of rumors, violent fangirls and suspension because she was skipping class with Uchiha Shisui, the heartthrob of every female student at Konoha High. So she declined politely, to his disappointed puppy-eyed expression.

"Just remember, you're my favorite student," he said as he ruffled her hair before leaving. She stared at his back and watched as a large amount of girls came up to him and gave him their bento's, no doubt they made his favorite food. She stared at his figure with her nose cringed, feeling annoyed with her teacher.

He has all these girls offering him their bento's and he calls her his favorite student? Tch, modern day Casanova!

* * *

><p>She arrived home, tired as hell in the wee hours of the night.<p>

She slumped over at the dining table, counting the number of homework that she would have to complete. Biology homework, chemistry homework, Calculus homework- There was so much homework that the teachers gave their students and she wondered why none of the students haven't gone insane at the workload of it.

She walked over to the kitchen, dread accumulating at the bottom of her stomach as she saw the increased amount of unwashed dishes in the sink. She felt like taking a spoon and gouging everyone's eyes out in frustration, why hasn't anyone washed the stupid dishes yet?!

_Bark!_

"Down boy,everyone is sleeping," Kiba shushed, closing the front door softly so that he wouldn't bother his sleeping dormmates. As he walked to the stairs, he saw something dash around in the dark and he yelped, feeling something roughly yank on the collar of his shirt.

"Look whoever you are, YOU ARE CLEANING THE KITCHEN WITH ME!"

_Next morning._

"Wow, someone actually cleaned the dishes and scrubbed the floors," Neji noted as he uncovered a rice cooker that he didn't know they have from the pile of squeaky clean dishes left to dry.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry if i exaggerated and again, i hopeyou enjoy this chapter! ^^'<strong>


	4. Teamwork

Chapter 4 : Teamwork

**Apparently, Naruto has ended and now all the pairings are set in stone. I'm a Sasusaku shipper so I was happy to see them have a child even though Sasuke was not at home. I'm kinda sad it ended, because Naruto ending also meant that part of my childhood came to an end. Anyway, without further adue, I present to you AHM chapter 4! I hope you enjoyed reading this because I had a hard time writing it. Again, tell me if I'm exaggerating or anything! Thank you for reading and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto.**

**To Nary Token : Yeah, you can make requests and I'll see whether they fit into the story line. Feel free to leave any idea! **

* * *

><p>"Remember when I said teamwork is an essential item to a successful team?" Kakashi spoke out, on this fine day while the three children were painting on a canvas for the upcoming Arts festival. All of them looked up at him expectantly- huddled around the large canvas, faces dirtied with blue and red paint, paintbrushes held carelessly in their little fingers. Sakura had her pink hair up in a small ponytail, Naruto tied a bandanna around his forehead while Sasuke used a hair clip to hold his bangs backwards.<p>

Sasuke pouting, Sakura cringing, Naruto cringing AND pouting. All of them looked so cute together, Kakashi thought to himself as he sneakily readied his phone to take a picture of them in their current position.

"What abo- hey!" Sakura shouted, bringing about the attention of her two teammates to their cunning silver-haired teacher. He had his phone up and placed it at a normal height, if Sakura hadn't heard the little _snap! _and saw the flash from his smartphone, she would've thought that he was texting someone. Once realizing that Kakashi was taking pictures of them, Sakura and Naruto were determined to ruin the photos by making ugly faces while Sasuke glared at the camera, pout straightened into a grim line.

Kakashi put his phone back into his pocket and crossed his arms casually, continuing his bit of the conversation where he left it off. After all, it is important.

"About the teamwork being essential, we have an event coming up and it is compulsory for everyone to enter, regardless whether they are new or old students. You guessed it, it's a teamwork exercise."

"How is it compulsory? Are we given extra credit for this?" Sakura asked as she wiped the sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her shirt. Sasuke looked at Kakashi, he too wanted a reason why the exercise was compulsory because he didn't want to waste his time with unnecessary things. Heck, he hated painting flowers on this canvas for the Arts festival but he got sucked into doing it because Kakashi said it would make him better than his brother.

Sasuke facepalmed mentally, how he fell for such a dumb bait instantly was beyond him and he was going to make sure that he wouldn't be quickly convinced ever again.

"It helps with your grades because every student will be graded for how well they cooperate with each and I am not a teacher that gives high scores so easily," he said coolly, a challenge hidden behind his words which did not go unnoticed by his smart students.

"What do we need to do?" Sasuke asked, sharply straightforward.

"Well, it wouldn't be fun if I told you now," Kakashi answered with a smile (or eye-crinkle since he was masked) before he turned to Naruto. "Naruto, don't tell them or I will give you an F."

"That's unfair, Kakashi-senseeeeeeeeeeeeeeei!" Naruto whined dejectedly, slumping his body defeatedly on the canvas in front of him.

"Naruto," Sakura called out to him, alarmed. "Naruto, get off you're ruining our painting!"

"Huh?" Naruto got up, a swirl of paint visible on his cheeks. Sasuke and Sakura looked at Naruto and looked at the canvas, then looked at Naruto and looked at the canvas _closer. _When they saw the painted flowers from above, the flowers were now pools of ruined flowers or really ominous looking clouds. Both Sasuke and Sakura stared at each other for a moment, they couldn't decide which was better to describe the ruined **thing **but both of them silently agreed, that it definitely spelled trouble for Naruto.

"Naruto!" both of them shouted together, leaping forward to catch Naruto in their claws as they did. Unfortunately, the fell short of the fall and instead of catching Naruto, they fell on the painting and ruined it to an extent that could not be saved by their mediocre painting skills. The both of them stood up and dusted their shirts, scrutinizing over their blue-red dirtied dress shirts. This would take some time to scrub all of the dirt out but thank god it's not oil-based paint they used, Sakura thought to herself.

The both of them stared at Naruto who was laughing his ass off hysterically before they started chasing him around the room, determined to get him as dirty as they currently are. So they ran around the room, all smiles and laughter like children at a park on lazy Sunday afternoon. Hands reaching out for the hem of Naruto's shirt, throwing all sorts of colored paint at each other, occasionally slipping and catching each other, stamping each other's handprints on each other's backs. The painting was forgotten, reality seemed so far away as the sun peeked through the windows romantically.

Kakashi smiled at this display of childish exuberance - These kids might not always get along with each other, but they do have a bit of teamwork spirit and that's all he needed to know.

Then, Kakashi glanced towards Sasuke, noticing a small smile and a more relaxed, more carefree movements in his usually rigid body language. _He just needs to loosen up a little. Maybe, Mikoto-san shouldn't worry so much about Sasuke," _he thought to himself as he avoided his three children running around the room and watched as the two older children finally, FINALLY pounce on the youngest blonde one. So he took out his phone and took a quick snap of all of them on the floor.

Such cute children.

* * *

><p><em>"Psssstt! Sakura!"<em>

_Sakura stirred from her sleep, rising from her comfortable bed with her mind feeling groggy, like a thick fog was clouding her mind and sight. She rubbed the sleepy out of her eyes, trying to wake herself up as best as possible to see what her friend was going on about, calling people in the middle of the night. Sakura looked at her alarm clock, 3.09 A.M. This better be important because she has 2 more hours to sleep before attending the morning classes._

_"You have your morning class, you also have your night classes which we call prep," the words of her headmistress echoed throughout her ears, clear and uncensored as if they were spoken directly into her ears right now. Sakura felt a sudden stinging sensation on both sides of her cheeks, her friend, Hanami slapped them as she wanted to keep her friend awake. She was successful in keeping Sakura awake, but she failed in keeping Sakura's temperament cool as the pink haired girl hissed out in pain and glared at her with the promise of a slow death._

_She shrugged nervously, "Look, I didn't want to disturb y-"_

_"You already did so just get to the point," Sakura interrupted sharply, her words now enunciated with a more steel, cutting edge than her usual cheery, light-hearted voice. Hanami gulped nervously, hands fidgeting at the lace hem of her nightshirt. She knew it was risky but she didn't know who else to turn to and she couldn't sleep a wink at all throughout the night and she couldn't carry the anxiousness in her chest anymore. She was desperate - she wanted relief and she wanted it now._

_" I need you to go to the senior's rooms and get my diary back. It's important!"_

_"And why is it important?!"_

_"Because I have secrets in there!"_

_"Can't we just wait til later, I'm tireeeeed," she drawled out, yawning mid sentence to emphasize on the sleepiness that clouded her current state of mind. Just as she was about to wrap herself under the covers and go to sleep, her friend jumped on her relentlessly, deetermined to convince Sakura to steal her diary back from the seniors. She wasn't kidding when she said she had secrets in there, __**embarrassing **__AND __**horrible **__secrets. There was no way she was going to risk having those secrets run rampant._

_"Look, I'll pay for your lunches for the week so please, please Sakura, pleaaaaaseeeeee!" She begged desperately, kneeling on her knees as she clasped her hands in a prayer-like form with her head bowed towards her pink haired friend. Sakura didn't shift nor did her friend hear Sakura say anything. Getting off the bed, she walked to the door, feeling very disappointed and sad. She would just have to sail through her anxiety and wait for tomorrow so that she can ask for her diary back from the seniors._

_"I'm not doing this alone. You keep watch while I sneak into the dorms," a voice spoke simply, relief washed over her. She jumped around and danced a little victory dance, excited that Sakura would actually get her diary back. She wondered why Sakura would agree to this risky adventure. Heck even Sakura was surprised that she actually got out of her bed and agreed to help steal her friend's diary back._

_Her friend had to jog after her to keep up with Sakura's quick pace. in between pants and huffs, she asked," Where are we going?"_

_"The office. We need to see whether there is a warden scheduled to do the rounds around the school now," Sakura answered, flicking the switch of her flashlight to turn it on as they reached the front door of their dormitory and started their journey to the administrator's office. It was a short walk but it was still risky because a warden could spot them in such an open area and they could be expelled for suspicious conduct around the campus at night. It didn't help either that there were reports of robbers around their area recently, nope it just made the risk factor __**higher.**_

_"But why don't we just go to the senior's dorm? Wouldn't it be easier to sneak in through the windows?" Her friend suggested._

_"In the warden's office, there are lockpicks which we can use to break in unless the senior that took your diary has her windows open and just in case this happens again, isn't it better that we already have the warden's schedule in our hands so that we can plan properly?" Sakura explained nonchalantly, pushing the doors open to enter the empty and eerily dark hallways of the administrator's building. Sakura clenched the flashlight in her hand and breathed in, trying to dispel any fear that accumulated in her trembling body._

_Her friend grabbed her hand, "Let's just go. We can steal the diary back when everyone's off to classes."_

_"What?! No, we've gotten this far and I'm not letting you chicken out just because you've got the hibbabajibidies. We either do this together and end all this nonsense now or we don't get your diary back at all!"_

_Her friend staggered slightly, shocked at what felt was an ultimatum from Sakura. She was starting to get scared, the possible consequences finally weighing in her mind and rang in her mind like a gong. What if they got caught loitering now? What would happen to them if they did? Would they be expelled? What did Sakura think of this?_

_All these questions she wanted but all she could manage was, "I'm scared."_

_"Hanami," said Sakura as she held her friend's hand reassuringly. "We go in as a team and leave as a team. We can't do this if we don't trust each other."_

* * *

><p>Sakura entered the empty classroom, slowly walking in and tried to find whether any of her friends were hiding beneath the tables. So when she couldn't find a single limb or a yellow ball of hair under the tables, she found it odd because she received a text from Kakashi-sensei to gather at the classroom where they usually meet. She thought they would have arrived or at least Sasuke would have because he's always the earliest of the three of them, Naruto being the tardiest of them.<p>

"Sasuke?" She called out as she heard the door slide open, green eyes widened. Surprised to find that Naruto was the one passing through that door instead of their taciturn raven-haired friend.

"Where's that teme?" Naruto asked, Sakura shook her head as a response, knowing only as much as Naruto about Sasuke's whereabouts. Both of them took a seat beside each other, waiting for their raven-haired companion to arrive. After all, it was not like him to be late at all, although it was definitely Kakashi to be late.

_Shak!_

Both of them cried out Sasuke's name and saw that in Sasuke's hand were not the photos of the contestants that would advance into the next round of the competition, but he had a small, folded piece of paper in his hand. Naruto and Sakura immediately got up from their seats and stood beside Sasuke, curious to see what is written inside the note.

"To Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto," started Sasuke. "Here's a list of three things you must do and where you must do it..."

* * *

><p><em>"<em>Thank god it's a Friday," said Sakura as the three of them stopped at a T-intersection of the road in front of their school. Thankfully, school ended early on Fridays so they had a headstart on this whole teamwork exercise thing.

_1. Help 10 old ladies cross the road and take pictures with them._

"This is kind of absurd and doesn't he use old ladies as an excuse for being late? How is that supposed to help with teamwork?" asked Sakura as she temporarily squatted and hid under the boy's shadow, sheltering herself from the scorching heat of the sun.

Naruto shrugged, not having an answer himself. He might have done these teamwork exercises before but they were different every year so he couldn't exactly tell them what was coming out. Even this year's teamwork exercises were a little odd but he sucked it up and searched for a few ladies who needed to cross the road. He would've searched at other roads but Kakashi specifically wrote that it had to be only on that road and all of them needed to be in a selfie together, as proof they done the job.

It was a bit hard but with a little patience and time, they would get through this. Hopefully.

"There's an old lady there," said Sasuke as he noticed an old lady approaching the T-intersection, carrying bags of grocery items in her feeble hands. All three of them ran after the lady and asked whether she needed help carrying her groceries and crossing the road. To their relief, this lady needed to cross the road so that meant 1 off the list. So they helped her cross the road and got a selfie with her, accompanying her home because of the heavy groceries she had and got free food as a thank you for helping her.

It was a simple dish but it was hot, delicious and it filled the hungry stomachs of three just right. Of course, they didn't leave without thanking her. They parted with a small goodbye and an invitation to come over when they had the time to.

"She's a pretty nice lady, don't you think?" Said Sakura as she pat her stomach, a satisfied sigh breezed through her lips.

"We still have 9 more ladies so don't rest easy just yet."

"Way to ruin a moment, Sasuke-teme," Naruto spat as he spotted another lady who was knocking her cane against the tree. Again, all of them approached the old lady and the tree, curious to know why the lady was hitting the tree. Well, at least Naruto and Sakura were.

"Is there anything we can do to help?"

"If ye youngsters really wanna help, get me cat down the tree!" howled the lady rather rudely as she continued knocking the tree with her cane, calling out 'puss, puss, puss!' To her cat stuck high on one of the tree branches.

"This is a job for Naruto!" Naruto exclaimed, rolling his sleeves up and gave them a thumbs up as his stellar smile brightened up his tanned complexion. He struggled at first to grab onto a branch that wouldn't break when he held it, then slowly he started grabbing other branches that would bring him up and rose higher and higher up the tree to the lady's cat. One of the branches broke as he grabbed it and for a moment he lost his balance, regaining it when he steadied himself on another branch.

Sakura watched Naruto climbed the tree with worry that he might fall while the old lady and Sasuke watched him with crossed arms and a bored expression on their faces, unimpressed with Naruto's attempt at heroism.

Eventually Naruto did find the cat - a white cat with splotches of orange and black on its body with amber colored eyes. It was a pretty cat that clawed onto the branch for it's dear life which Naruto found amusing. "But not to worry, Naruto is here to save the day," saying that to himself as he reached out for the cat and carried with one hand as the other hand grabbed the branches for leverage as he made his way down. This was easy enough.

_HISSSSSSSSSS!_

"OWW! STAY STILL DATTE-AAAAAA"

"NARUTO!" Sakura screamed as she tried to catch Naruto from falling off the tree. Unfortunately she went down with him, cushioning the landing impact for Naruto which in turn lessen Naruto's pain from falling but increased her's from catching him? The both of them lied down on the ground, temporarily disoriented from the fall. Not one for missing an opportunity, Sasuke sauntered towards them and carried the vicious cat into his arms, giving the animal to the old lady.

"Thank you, young ones," she thanked them but did not leave without Sasuke tapping on her shoulder and asking her to take a picture with them.

Positioning the camera up in the air, he pressed the button and snapped the picture : Naruto's whiskered face having claw marks on them, Sakura on the ground with leaves and a few branches stuck out in weird angles in her pink hair, the lady making a peace sign. It was indeed a very eventful-looking photo.

"2 down and 8 more to go. That was easy enough," said Sasuke as he shoved the phone back into his pocket, waiting for the next lady to entertain them for the day.

* * *

><p>"At least they're trying to work together," Kakashi noted blandly, leaving the windowsill as to leave his students to complete the tasks he's given.<p>

So far, Naruto and Sakura were more than willing to cooperate, seeing as Sakura dived to save Naruto although she failed to do so. Sasuke on the other hand, seemed less than interested in cooperating and saw the both of them as a means to an end- letting them do all the work while he stood in the background doing nothing. Now that was worrying, but they had 2 more assignments so hopefully Sasuke can overcome that selfishness.

"Better hide this before those rascals come and do something to it," he said to himself as he carried a pile of orange books from the living room into his room, stashing his precious collection into his cupboard and hiding them behind his clothes.

* * *

><p><em>2. Bake red velvet cupcakes without Sakura's help<em>

Kakashi-sensei must've remembered that she said she liked cooking or else this would've been an easy task to complete in one hour and a half. All of them looked at the clock and sweatdropped slightly, 2.05 p.m. That seemed like an ample amount of time but seeing as they had a six o' clock curfew and they had one more task to complete, they were not sure if they were able to finish on time.

Nonetheless all of them got to work : Sasuke and Naruto were looking for a red velvet cupcake recipe while Sakura gathered some ingredients to decide to some food for dinner tonight. Last week, Neji made a killer steamboat for dinner so she decided to return the favor, it wasn't fair to have Neji cook all the time.

**'Did Sasuke say he hated spicy food?' **She asked herself, unsure. She remembered remnants of a conversation where he said he hated spicy food but his love for tomatoes were obvious with the absence of tomatoes in their fridge.

"What do we have here?" An uninvited guest intruded in the kitchen, a man in the form of Sasuke's cousin with unkept hair. He waltzed in the room with a smile on his face, walking over to his cousin to see what he was up to.

Sasuke glared at Shisui hard, "We're making red velvet cupcakes."

Shisui seemed impressed if not amused by the way he smirked at Sasuke's reply. He walked over to Sakura's table, interested to see what she was planning to cook. "Were you assigned to keep watch over us?" Sakura asked as she walked over to the food cabinet to see the food stock she could work with. There was not much vegetables or fruits, probably a portion for only one or two people. Looks like she would have to prepare the dinner when she returned to the dorm.

"Yup. But Kakashi-sensei did say that he wanted you to make peanut butter brownies," Shisui explained, aiming Kakashi's request as Sakura nodded and quickly gathered the ingredients to prepare the brownies.

Sakura was already prepared, weighing scale, measuring cylinder, flour, cocoa, powder, one of the many ingredients that she already had was on the table. Naruto and Sasuke, well, they didn't have much progress from where Shisui was standing. Sakura could be mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and they still couldn't decide on which recipe to use. At this rate, they would never get things done.

"Sasuke, Naruto, just pick any recipe. It's already 2.30 and you guys need to consider the time you need to cool down the cupcakes too," Sakura reminded them sternly.

"But Sakura, teme just won't agree to anything I pick because he thinks I'm an idiot!"

"That's because you are an idiot, you dobe!" Sasuke spat out, causing electricity to spark far too dangerously for Sakura's liking. She went over to their side of the table, her own dessert forgotten and whacked the two idiots on the head. Then she gave Sasuke _another _whack because he deserved it.

"We're already behind schedule. If we wanna make it in time of curfew and finish this exercise, we've gotta cooperate with each other so chop chop! Go get the flour, eggs and everything!" She ordered them fiercely, making them run for the ingredients and bump into each other at the same time. Sakura just shook her head in disapproval and resumed working on her brownie as Shisui sauntered over to her table and propped both hands on the sides of his face. Sakura raised a curious eyebrow at him, a gesture he replied with a cheeky smile.

"Don't you have other things to do? Like watching kids in detention?"

"Nah. I enjoy watching you kids more. Also, Mikoto asked me to watch over Sasuke so that's another thing."

She hummed,"Did she see you after she was done with Kakashi-sensei?"

"She saw Kakashi-sensei?" He asked, onyx colored eyes widened in surprise.

"Yeah, she wanted to see Kakashi-sensei about Sasuke. She looked kinda worried but she sure looks young and I mean it!"

"I see..." Shisui ended with a far away tone, peaking Sakura's interest quite a bit. To avoid the awkward silence, she slabbed a bit of the peanut butter on Shisui's cheek with a spoon, making him laugh and take a spoon so that he could slab her face back with some peanut butter. Soon, both of them had chunks of peanut butter on their cheeks and they were laughing to their heart's content about each other's faces. Sure, they were really into laughing at each other that they did not notice Sasuke glaring at their PDA with such heat that could bake the cupcakes itself.

He wished Shisui hadn't been so familiar with her and what's so special about her? Not only is she annoying, she thinks that she can boss him around just because she's older than him. Just great now they were-

_Poof!_

_Cough cough_

"Maybe Sasu-chan," Shisui noted with a cruel amusement as he tried hard to not laugh from Sasuke's face that was fully covered with flour as he coughed out the excess flour pathetically. "You would learn not to stare at people while you handle the flour."

* * *

><p>"Looks like you kids made it," Kakashi remarked nonchalantly, opening the door wider so that the trio could enter his modest apartment. He noticed that Sasuke had a problem with the flour, judging from the white specks that clashed with the raven color of his hair but he didn't say anything about seeing that his mood was quite soured, no doubt that this ill change of temperament was caused by the previous activity.<p>

_3. Cook dinner in my apartment_

Sakura briefly wondered how they were all going to fit in Kakashi's tiny kitchen. She placed the tupperware filled with brownies on the dinner table and admired the surroundings of Kakashi's apartment. It was a small apartment, two bedrooms and one bathroom which quite suited Kakashi because he was alone in that apartment. But for the lack of size in the rooms, the apartment compensated it with it's wide living room space which was joined with the dining and kitchen area. Even with those two areas, the living room seemed big enough to hold a party amount of people.

And Kakashi was the type to keep his apartment decor simple and neat - navy colored curtains, leather furniture arranged facing each other, a large 50-inch LCD TV on top of a glass table at the far end of the room, a small shelf filled with books accomodated the space beside the expensive TV, all of this enclosed in a sea of light grey and illuminated by the ball of light that hung in the centre of the room. Kakashi's apartment felt really masculine, and also had this bachelor vibe to it.

The kitchens were divided into two parts : the wet and the dry kitchen. The dry kitchen was inside the apartment and accomodated with a lot of simple and contemporary looking shelves which the area also doubles up as a dining area as there is a dining table n it. The wet kitchen probably big enough for two people and that's where she suspected the cooking is all done. So her intrigue had a point, how were all of them going to fit in one kitchen?

"Sasuke, Naruto, there is a kotatsu in the room on the left side of the bathroom. Take it out and set it up in the living room. After that, you can make some onigiri with the rice in the rice cooker. Sakura, you can help me cook Thai food for tonight," all of them nodded at the assignments given and immediately got to work, at least Sakura did. Naruto and Sasuke wee bickering as they were on their way to take the kotatsu.

Gathering all the ingredients and vegetables needed and placed them on the counter, she turned the fire on one of the stove and placed a pan filled with water on it. She was going to make the broth for the tomyam soup while Kakashi was the one frying some of the vegetables to make tempura for dinner. She could feel a silent yet effective cooperation with her sensei, she didn't have to say that she was going to do the soup from the start but he somehow figured it out along the way and decided on making the tempura.

She looked at the clock to see how long it was until dinner time and it was, 6.00 p.m. Crap, they had a curfew to stick to!

"Kakashi-sensei, I'm sorry to kinda leave this here but Sasuke, Naruto and I have a curfew to stick to!"

He seemed mildly surprised at this but kept his form controlled. "I forgot to tell you guys, that you were staying here for the night. I told Neji about it and asked him to deliver your clothes and towels here."

"Oh," she managed out, a blush lightly dusted her cheeks as she imagined Neji going through her underwear drawer to find a decent pair of underwear for her. She stared at the broth dumbly, her lips pressed into a grim line as she stirred the broth slowly and controlled the fire to avoid the broth from bubbling.

"So, how are things going with Sasuke?"

"Obviously, it's not turning out so well. Kakashi-sensei, he's a pain in my ass and he refused to help me and Naruto."

"It's going to take some time for him to adjust to you guys. It's not that he won't cooperate, he's just feling a bit shy and uncomfortable with you and Naruto," Kakashi reasoned with her.

"Well, I don't see how we can get along with someone who blatantly refuses to interact with us!" She replied, waving the ladle to emphasize her point to Kakashi-sensei.

He sighed for a moment and placed the tempura down. He tapped her on the shoulder and motioned for her to follow him quietly. Confused she was but she followed anyway, curious to see what Kakashi-sensei wanted to show her. She was startled at what she saw, making a note to herself to never doubt Kakashi's on-point judgement of character.

Sasuke was beside Naruto in the dry kitchen, making onigiri side by side him without an insult or banter between them. Naruto was making fox shaped onigiri's while Sasuke was making rabbit shaped onigiri, something she couldn't believe Sasuke was doing even when she saw it with her own two green eyes. She looked at Kakashi for an answer as they returned to their stations to continue on their part of the cooking.

"Naruto said that he wanted to make these fox shaped onigiri's. Sasuke didn't protest but he just followed Naruto, but he made a rabbit shaped onigiri instead," he explained plainly as he plated the tempura nicely. Seeing as the broth was done, Sakura scooped some of it into a bowl and brought it to the dinner table so that she could start on the soy cooked meat dish.

"Look Sakura," her silver haired teacher continued. "Sasuke needs time to warm up to you guys. He didn't have a very supportive father nor a very good childhood, so he has a hard time in trusting people. Give him time Sakura, he'll warm up to you guys."

* * *

><p>After dinner, all of them were playing a few games as to make the night fun seeing as they were staying over and he didn't have anything to do. The first round was a game of monopoly, which Naruto won because he's bought over most of the rich buildings and built hotels on them. Sure hotels and expensive fees didn't mean anything if you didn't land on them but they all landed on Naruto's property, and all of them were instantly bankrupt because of the outrageous fee.<p>

Next was card games, Uno and might have won many rounds of Uno as he skillfully added +4 to Naruto's deck everytime Naruto was close to declaring Uno game. As for monkey_, _well, fair to say that Kakashi and Sakura were plotting with each other to take Naruto down and surprisingly, Sasuke fared well against them seeing as he always managed to collect the amount of cards in both the same color and correct sequence in numbers. It was Naruto who cried out in denial as he lost each round while they all laughed at his dramatic antics.

Now they were all sleeping around the kotatsu, cards around the table with a few empty glasses and snacks on the table. All of them were sleeping in different positions : Sasuke lied his back on the floor with his arms covering his eyes, Sakura was sleeping on the table with her arms crossed to cover her mouth, Naruto was sprawled on the floor, shirt lifted to see his leanly muscled stomach with a mouth open wide enough for spiders to make webs in it.

He was reminded of his adolescent days seeing his students like that : He remembered the time when Minato invited him, Obito and Rin to stay for the night. All of them were not friendly with each other before that sleepover - Kakashi refused to talk to them because he believed himself superior over them, Obito didn't talk to him because he hated Kakashi's skyscraping arrogance, Rin was slightly more neutral but he could see that she was a little biased towards Obito. But after the sleepover, all of them were much more , much more willing to help each other out, and that's what mattered.

So he hoped that in arranging such ridiculous tasks that the three of them, by the end of the day would walk out of his apartment a bit more friendly towards each other. Sure, there was a slight setback in results because Sasuke was still wrapped in his defensive cocoon but like he said, he would give it time. After all, it took him some time to adjust to Obito and Rin's company as well.

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto murmured in his sleep, turning over as he did. Kakashi laughed a little and took out his phone, snapping a photo of his sleeping students. He had enough photos of them from the whole 'help old ladies cross the road' adventure which should last a year but he suspected this particular photo where they were all sleeping, would stay as his lockscreen for some time. Sigh, such cute children.

His phone vibrated, and he cheked the text message. It was from Shisui.

"Mikoto-baa, huh?"

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry if it looked rush or too exaggerated or anything! I hope you enjoyed it and please, review favorite and alert! See you next time!<strong>


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